CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Lines crawled out into the streets leading up to the Exxon gas station on Pineville-Matthews Road on Thursday morning, as it was one of the few stations in Charlotte with fuel.

Exxon actually hired security guards to help with the lines.

Emphasis added by me.

And most importantly:

There were also reports of tempers flaring at the pumps. NewsChannel 36 reporters saw a fight break out at one station after someone cut in line.

Emphasis added by me.

These people are not hungry. They are not homeless. They don’t have the terror of where to find their next meal or where to sleep. They have money, they have jobs, they have homes, they have food, they have possessions that still have value.

Yet they cannot manage themselves in a reasonable manner during a time of temporary frustration.

This post is a Sticky. It will remain here until the alleged bailout by Congress has been approved.

Update, Friday October 3, 2008:

For new posts, scroll down to the next one.

I’ve seen posts elsewhere by people stating they’d rather see the collapse of the entire economic system instead of having the current alleged bailout go through. They believe they could live through the consequences of that.

They are so wrong.

Get Depression 1.0 out of your head right now.

We are not that people. We are not that population.

A collapse on the scale we are in danger of right now is unprecedented in all of human history. There is absolutely nothing else to compare it to. This is a strange land we have never before visited.

I’m going to take you through a tour of this possible future. I intend to scare the living shit out of you in doing so. I do it not of out some perverse glee. I do it to try to wake all of you up to the very real and probable calamity ahead.

I’ll wait until your head is bashed in by an out-of-control over-steroided costumed muscleman.

Because it’s only then that you’ll understand the extent of the outrage being perpetrated against all of us.

Oh, and when your head is bashed in? I hope it’s done in the compleat Nazi way they’ve done other heads: blocking the view of all possible witnesses so no lawsuit can ever occur and no charges of brutality can ever be pressed.

Photos taken Wednesday September 2, 2008 on Satan Island with the Philips crapcam:

See the tow truck on right?

Apparently this van came loose from it …

… and rolled alllll the way down the hill …

… until it met this car …

… and did all this damage.

Now when I took this final picture, you can see the cop coming into frame at right. He actually made body contact with me and told me to “Keep walking.” A real Nazi attitude. Let me repeat: He made physical contact with me. Assault.

There are many other ways he could have handled this. But he chose to be a Nazi. So instead of these photos being all private like, here they are.

A retired police officer, who bravely challenged yobs when a beer can was thrown at his car late at night, was horrified to be later arrested himself and thrown in a cell.

Former Inspector Paul Lawson, 52, intended to make a citizen’s arrest, but sensibly backed down when the youths surrounding him threatened to kill him and smash up his vehicle.

He reported the incident in Morpeth to two police officers on patrol in the area, but they refused to take action.

One of the gang later claimed to have been assaulted by Mr Lawson and this time Northumbria Police did intervene.

Really, it’s getting like Bizarro World over there.

Why aren’t the officers who refused to take action up on charges of dereliction of duty?

And this guy, he just begs to be fired:

Chief Inspector John Barnes, of the Northumbria Police, refused to comment on the incident, adding: ‘Anyone who feels unhappy with the way they have been treated by Northumbria Police can always make use of our official complaints procedure.’